graphic dreams

Sometimes looking at the over 69,000 images of virtual realities in the Flickr group Mondi Virtuali – Virtual Worlds I’m struck by the style of a specific artist. It is the case of Dee Dee Deepdene, who has always been one of my favourite “graphic dreamer”, an artist able to create really sexy but never crude images.

Dee Dee, sexy artist never crude

Dee Dee created hundreds of images for tens of albums on Flickr, most of which devoted to her electronic alter ego, a “perky” blondie, but even to some of the most iconic locations among those created in these years on Second Life platform, such as Kowloon or Midian City.

10 years of images and poses in Second Life

After having created images for over 10 years using Second Life’s editor, Dee Dee has opened some times ago a little store to sell poses with the brand DeePosed (you can visit it in world or on the Second Life Marketplace), so you can buy her over 700 poses, used to create her stunning images.

Dee Dee Deepdene dances alone

By the way: Dee Dee, as herself has explained so many times, is not a “professional” photographer, therefore she doesn’t realize images on commission, she doesn’t collaborate with other artists, she doesn’t use model if not herself. Without further ado: enjoy a little sample of the wide production of Dee Dee thanks to our gallery.

An outburst on Facebook for yet another case in which the signal of a user who is deemed “offended” by the images of another user is likely to involve the removal of the gallery of an interesting graphic dreamer. This time it was Meryll Panthar, many of whose works can be seen on the Mondivirtuali groupon Flickr, and this has intrigued us since Meryll usually does not produce images excessively spicey. So we wanted to contact her and introduce you to her work, having an interview with Meryll by Luciana Pinazzo. Have a nice reading.

Luciana Pinazzo: Hi Meryll, I’ve heard of some troubles for you on Flickr, hopefully it will be all ok, but since I admire your works since a while, I would like to asks some questions. First of all when do you start to take snapshots and create graphic dreams using Second Life editor and how did you develop this passion?

Meryll Panthar: I started to take pictures in SL in 2012. I was going through SL changes and starting to do costume design and building when my friend Victoria Lenoirre introduced me to the site Koinup. I knew Victoria made poses, but didn’t realize aside from profile pictures or product pictures what could be done with photos from Second Life.

L.P.: Do you prefer a few specific themes (fashion, portrait, landscapes, spicey pics and so on) or you just create depending on your mood and/or by the occasion (i.e.: when you see something worth, you just click)?

M.P.: I’ve dabbled in a little bit of every genre, blog and fashion, product photo, western, mythology, daily life, science fiction, fantasy, landscapes, even spicey. Mood is a huge part of how I work if I’m not feeling it I won’t do a picture.

L.P.: How much work there is behind your pics, are they edited through PS and/or Gimp (or any other software) or are your works just as they were shot?

M.P.: A lot of work goes into the pictures I do. Personally, because of the way I work, a simple backdrop doesn’t satisfy me. I’ve seen beautiful images done with green screen or backdrops, just for me it loses something when I’m shooting. I approach my pictures much in the way that a movie or television crew would, I scout locations looking at multiple sims until I find the one that fits and if I can’t find one I will build one with the help of my partner and husband, Bruce MacMoragh. Once the set is done then it’s the process of going through Windlight, finding the lighting I want and whether or not I want to enhance with tools such as face lights, scratch built lights or Lumipro etc. Once the shot is done I will then take it into Photoshop to correct minor things. Those small odd folds that our wireframe bodies sometimes have, or to add things like rain, smoke, fog, etc.

L.P.: Is it more important, for you: have imagination, have a good hardware/software to edit the works, have a “photographer’s eye”?

M.P.: For me imagination is everything. I like pictures that either tell a story or allow the viewer to tell their own story. Something that you can lose yourself in. The majority of my inspirations comes from imagination or my own or influenced by, novels, comic books, tv, movies, and traditional role playing games such as the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.

L.P.: What do you think about censorship and/or child protection on the web? Do you think there will be found an equilibrium point and how?

M.P.: Censorship is based a lot on antiquated notions and ideas. Why is it more acceptable to see a full nude of the female form than it is the male? We are still worldwide under a patriarchal society, and often times that is the source of censorship. I am for the equality of genders, many of my works are what would be called “girl power”. Even earlier when I talked about having shot adult related pictures, the female initiated the entire sequence. About child protection… This one is a touchy point for me. I actually had a woman lecture me on my responsibility to what children in her supervision would see on my Flickr stream.

Last time I checked I had no children under my supervision so it’s not my responsibility what a child does under someone else’s care and until she wants to start sending me child support payments it still won’t be my responsibility. I never marketed to children, I never put in key words to turn up in searches. What I do isn’t for everyone, and hopefully it will never be for everyone, some will like it some will hate it, and that’s as Art should be. I don’t think there will ever be a balance point on this issue in my lifetime unfortunately. Too many people find it too easy to blame others rather than to say yes, I messed up. It’s just far easier to complain.

L.P.: An advice for all those who like to became a graphic dreamer like you?

M.P.: The best advice I can give has come from others, do what you love. Don’t worry about trends, you are not always going to be liked. Develop a thick skin you will attract people who hate what you do or hate how you do things. You will cry, you will hurt, you will suffer. You will even quit. I know I’ve done all of these things, but if you truly love what you do and you see art in everything, not just what you are told is art you will dust yourself off and you will continue. Find people who you admire look at what they do, then stay true to yourself. I have multiple influences from both SL and RL, which include in no order or no particular favoring, Jim Lee, Wheelerwood Oppewal, Tim Burton, Bruce Tim, Victoria Lenoirre, Freyja Merryman, Sarrah Docherty, Robert Kirkman, Twinklestarlight, Larry Elmore, Bob Ross… the list could just go on forever so much respect and love to all my influences even if I didn’t name them all. So best advice I could give is love what you do, do what you love.

Have a nice year and first of all thanks to the about 700 fans that joint Graphic Dreams and added to its pool over 8,750 wonderful images created using graphic editor of virtual worlds like Second Life, Imvu or Twinity or Mmorpg as The Sims. Tools only apparently “cold” or “amateur“, which in the right hands, however, allow to express a range of emotions and themes from the most playful to the most serious ones.

But let’s go back to Dokkie: in her work strikes me the innocence and joy, both that it is to portray a friend, Niobe, or a group of 3 Fairies. The innocence has no shame, because it has no knowledge of rules and social conventions, so the figures that glow vividly in the works of Dokkie are often naked, or with skimpy clothes and laid almost at random, girls playing like women but who still do not understand the art of seduction, because they are still in contact with nature and therefore pure and innocent.

Or at least that is what the playful images of Dokkie let me feel. But she is also able to celebrate the love in her images, like those made for her friends Nicky and Jake, or transform a nightmare into a 3D installation like the one represented in Hospital.

Dokkie can also be sensual in its own way, though he is passionate about Fairy tales, not disdaining even the use of black and white, that already other artists such as Paola Mills elected as their stylistic signature to create sensual images with a high impact, to portray herself or “weird” situations different yet equally interesting, because something always marked by a childlike.

If Dokkie wants to represent the world through the eyes of a little fairy, a girl who has the curiosity and the desire to grow, however, and wants to preserve her “wonderland” as a new Alice, I think she is on the right track, what do you say? I will wait your opinions in the comments on the site or on our page on Facebook, but do not make me wait too long, please!

You know: since I live in Italy in these latest months I was too busy in RL with work, family and taxes to log in Second Life or visit other virtual worlds even if I would have liked, so I decided to follow the latest news only through the Mondivirtuali group on Facebook or via graphic social networks like Pinterest, Flickr or Koinup instead to attend “in world” events. But last night when I finally found time to connect and controlthe many IMs or group messages come to my avatar, I had a pleasant surprise.

Not only Second Life is more alive than ever,not only seems to suffer much less lag andcrash a time but some “historical names” of Italian community have opened new businesses in the fashion industry, that always fascinates me (I’ve worked as a model for virtual agencies from that of Jennyfer Miles and for many designers, Italians or not, before to became the Pr Manager and/or Ceo for designer as Patrizia Blessed, in RL owner of Ardigraph, Silviax Johin or Anubis Harthunian). An example? Yesterday I received a message informing me that Chrysalis offers not one but three different gifts to the visitors of her main store (if you like follow this link).

Chrysalis (whom you can find even on Secondlife Marketplace) is a brand of Kristine Lowey, an Italian girl, in SL since March 2007, whom I knew being a virtual artist (for instance she dranw the poster for 2Lei in Second Life of 2010) but sincerely (mea culpa) I never followed her activities in the virtual fashion sector. Thanks to God I did it now, not only do I have in my inventory three new outfits absolutelyfantastic one ruby red as well suited to theatmosphere of year end parties or for any glamor photos (I have already some ideas, if you follow my galleries on Koiunup or Flickr you’ll soon see some new soon), I have also noticed many proposals, from 50 to 1000 lindens (ie from 25 cents to 2.5 euro) which can be used to “dress” your digital alterego.

Second Life may be just a game like someone wants, may be a form of digital extension of our identity, but for sure there is no reason to go badly dressed if with so little effort you can get clothes and accessories really well done and reward, as should be, the Italian creativity: so much we talk of “made in Italy” products maybe made ​​entirely in China or other countries, and only with a label sewn on it, these ones (in SL) if only were actually designed and “produced” in Italy e in these days is not so bad.

While I am pleased that Graphic Dreams continues to grow and now has over 8,400 images from virtual worlds or Mmorpgs such as Secondlife, IMVU, The Sims or Twinity just to name the most commonly used, and while I will never cease to point out to you as artists as Connie Sec, Betty Rogan, Lithea, Annie Klavinham or Strawberry Sigh continue to produce good images, I shall soon talk about the new graphic dreamer that I want to signal to your attention: HivaOa Insoo.

To be truth, I already mentioned HivaOa to you some months ago but at the time the artist, a Frenchman who you can find on Flickr too with images both real and related to avatars and virtual worlds (by the way, don’t you forget to join Mondivirtuali’s group on Flickr so you can see your images also on the homepage of Mondivirtuali.it), but at that time his gallery on Koinup was still very little. To be truth, it is still very little (55 images had been included in its gallery at the time, 54 you can find in it today), but the images continue to change, as if HivaOa preferred show of himself only the most recent production or at least what it considers to represent him better, now pointing to the quantity rather than the quality.

A choice to be admired that makes his gallery really full of images of excellent workmanship. Images that vary both as subject and as a style, sometimes pictorial and realistic, sometimes very graphic, sometimes similar to an artist like Marc Chagall, influenced by the major avant-garde of the early twentieth century without ever being “only” a cubist or futurist or a tachist. If you want, browse with me the gallery of HivaOa: look at one of the best tributes to Lost Gardens of Apollo (the fantastic land of Second Life now unfortunately disappeared) I have ever seen or the equally impressive landscape of Ailirium Garden rather than the detail of the equally lamented land of AM Radio, Fast Car. Then, browse portraits as diverse as those of Aelin Quan of Anley Piers, of Mandarine or of Koad Sewell. And when you think of being in front of an eclectic artist by training but decidedly pictorial, try to look at more recent work as The Tree, the Birds and the Moon or World’s End Garden and you seem to be admiring ancient Japanese prints.

But then images as The mysterious city of Venexia or Esmeralda will seem a modern reinterpretation of certain paintings of Canaletto. You are still out of the way: HivaOa has graphic and surreal grain as in The girl with purple dress or seems to recall, as mentioned, Chagall and the avant-garde of the twentieth century with The Meeting or he is still a fan of Tim Burton and of Nightmare before Christmas as he seems to be with Le Pantin? No matter how is him, HivaOa proves to be a real artist with a great poetic ability, able to extract the best that Second Life can offer as a starting point to create new forms of artistic expression.

Those who think that virtual worlds are a dead should look at the gallery of HivaOa and I’m sure they would change idea. So a prayer: spread the word, follow also our fanpage on Facebook and make sure that more and more people realize the good that is still in Second Life and appreciate the efforts that for years the staff of Mondivirtuali continues to pursue,to raise awareness of the same. If I can still write about graphic dreams it’s because of my readers so thank you, please continue to support us!

I have to propose many new names, however, so I don’t waste any more time and I talk about Merthyn Vintner, who recently proposed works that are really interesting in terms of colors, shapes and compositions. Merthyn as many graphic dreamers uses the editor of Second Life, then using editing programs to further edit images obtaining works with significant impact as Dance Forever or Crying Waterfalls moving away from the “classics” canons of the digital image that tends to play a sort of “pop postcard” to get closer to a more painterly style and impressionist.

In some cases Merthyn Vintner played several times with the avatars to propose them in dozens of “clicks” different to colors, contrasts, poses or lights, linked only by the figure of the subject, as here or here, getting works very different from each other that seem to give the viewer the great versatility of these graphical representations of digital identity. In addition to avatars Merthyn, who has a boundless gallery, with over 650 works when I write this article, takes delights in reinterpreting landscapes like in Lone Camel, or in Dark Temple o even with Musical Box or Wasteland just to name a few of the most recent.

Images, you can also see from the comments left by users of Koinup.com, which invariably end up arousing desire in the viewer to go and explore firsthand the location depicted and this seems to me an indication of how powerful can be the art as a means to stimulate further reactions and “artistic” experiences in the viewer and not only those who create.

Curiously,while experiencing very possible variations in color or figurative of figures and landscapes such as in Rock Plants, Merthyn rarely produces images in which both elements, figures and landscapes, are present, as in Rhea in Charmed Paradise III which is a shame in my opinion because the few works offered are interesting and deserve further investigation. But who knows if Merthyn will show us more pleasant surprises in the near future, certainly I recommend you to follow his production on Koinup.

Before I tell you who is in my opinion the graphic dreamer of the week, I want to tell a new name which I find very interesting, except that she has a gallery still relatively small, might well aspire to the title: Parthenia, a French girl whom appreciates the The Sims 2 platform to carry out works in a very personal and intense style, almost always marked by romantic tones as in Passion or epic, as in L’Esprit du Loup or in La complainte du soleil. Very well Parthenia, go on in this way and maybe I will soon return to speak about you on these pages.

But here’s the graphic dreamer of the week, Meer Bluebird (owner of the homonympus Sim and more and more appreciated in Second Life, where she has exhibited until recently), a Japanese girl who has always had a particularly “graphic” and clean style in her pictures (just look at Yeah!) where often oriental influences as in The sword unsheathed or Year of the dragon mix with influences in fashion as some of herself portrait or in some avatars representations as in This one! if not in authentic fashion images as Golden Tiger rather than Petal or similar.

What I find is the common thread of Meer way to tell and tell with her images is an undeniable elegance that sometimes emerges as a bully in Autum violet or in Autumnal tints, sometimes more discreetly as in the different versions of My mind (look at this or even this, which is the cover of this article) rather than in portraits as Spring blue. A light touch, clean, elegant, reminiscent of the art of writing, or maybe of the sword, which some Eastern populations over time has been further refined, or perhaps as sharp as in White balance or Hang out.

So, while I remind you that you can follow the latest news of our favored graphic dreams also on Facebook with just a “like”, I can only advise you to keep an eye Meer Bluebird and her production (in addition to that, already mentioned, of Parthenia).

While I want to tell some great new works by graphic dreamer long been known for their creativity as Marlia Looming (who now also offers images from Aion as the series actually called Aion-Asmodae rather than from Daz 3D), Connie Sec (Baiser de feu is one of my favorite pictures ever among those seen in recent weeks), VladMlad (whose tract is becoming increasingly “graphic” as in Milna’s cemetery) and always surprising Chrystalship Rehula (just take a look at Third eye), I can not but notice how avatars and landscapes at the moment constitute the issues most assiduously followed by the artists that use virtual worlds as a medium for their works.

Images that are between the fairy and the everyday life and which Yasha (I can finally select as our graphic dreamer of the week a boy!) can mix in his gallery exploiting the Second Life platform in a way that in reality is not in itself original (avatar images and digital landscapes are among the most widespread since the existence of virtual worlds) but which Yasha proposes with a very personal cut, both in shots and in colors.

Colors ranging from vivid to dull, from the small intestine from the brilliant “technicolor” in tones of gray in the same image as seen from its initial proposals as Sad Cello or Flying Minds (that you can see in this article) belonging to the series “Morning lonelyness”.

Yasha images of whom can be also very sensual as in Together (that you can see in this article), often accompany his works with prose or poetry or song lyrics: is a way that many other artists use to make it even better feeling that they tried to recreate with their work and I personally find this technique very attractive and to give greater “depth” to the images of the graphic dreamer. In any case see works such as Breakfast or Perfect or Against the Wall II (that reminds me of certain Pompeian frescoes) worth alone the definition of artistic works for both the accuracy with which they are made and the ability to mix techniques and themes derived from “major arts” such as painting, sculpture or photography. The same applies to landscapes as Into the Pink Dust, The Bridge of Sights or Fu Touristic.

Sometimes the works of Yasha are directly inspired by a text or a song as in Colour (that you can see in this article), some others refer directly to the concept of reading as a source of learning as in The Reader I but alongside the idea of life itself as best teacher (proped in The Reader II). By the way the relationship between the image and the text seems to me to live in Yasha so that some of his works make me think of famous novels, even when not directly mention: The tales of the fishermann for example, brings to mind The Old Man and the Sea, while Fight against the Titans Fight I concur with some youthful adventures of Harry Potter. By the way, it seems to me that Yasha’s works deserves to be called a dream and I think that you should keep a constant eye, maybe following us even on our Facebook’s fanpage. Bye!

In short, you have already guessed that I would and I should speak to you again of a lot of graphic dreamers that I wrote earlier last year, because they continue to propose new interesting works, in some cases refining their technique and building on themes already explored in the past, in other experimenting new styles and new themes. But the very success of the group makes me calls, andtalk about a graphic dreamer whom I followed for some time and I think now it’s time to refer you: Kanielle Bellic (who has now closed her account on Koinup but still is visible on Flickr). Kanielle is, to use her words, “a woman who likes to do many things“. The result, as regards graphics, it’s a very rich and beautifulgallery, which seems focused on the representation of the female.

The women of Kanielle Bellic seem rebels momentarily caged as in Behind the chainlink, steampunk or gotich heroines, bad girls engaged in an intense activity with their partners (better if on the notes of a song whose text accompanies the image as in My Nasty Naughty Boy), sometimes wear masks like clowns or enjoy to play characters in manga as in Only for Girls. If you initially Kenielle enjoyed making pictures for himself or for virtual friends that this constituted no more than a pastime, in recent months she has also started a photo studio business in Second Life (Kani’s Visual Images Studio) and more frequently began making a series of themed images, as Demon and his Virgin (here and here) or the “3 words pics” series, which up to now consists of five images (here, here, here, here and here). Series that Kanielle has developedin collaboration with another artist of the metaverse, Nathaniel Jehangir (who is Kanielle’s virtual partner).

By the way Kenielle’s style seems to prefer traits determined, deep contrast, saturated colors. But we are not faced only another “MTV generation” artist, since her issue is not the typical “pop” one of this kind of artists, but rather has always taken a little worried, that seems to betray uncertainty and complexity of times in which we live and in this differs from the multi-colored light-heartedness of the “MTV generation” (with whom, however, seem to share a certain irony to the bottom). Congratulations and we hope to see more works soon.

Then let me welcome the return of Link that I did not seethe work in the group for a long time although it was among the first graphic dreamer of which I spoke (Links in the meantime has grown as an artist and now instead of using the avatars of The Sims she draws her own beauties digital illustrations) and to suggest to you to see the gallery of HivaOa Insoo which I find particularly rich in suggestions and if not that is still relatively small (55 beautiful images when I write this article) I would definitely be judged worthy of the graphic dreamer title this week.

But in the end after a thousand doubts, because with more than 6,200 images and over 550 members each time the choice is more difficult, I decided to speak of Betty Rogan and will immediately suggest Day of Rain which I think by a strong surrealist influence is able to exploit well the potential of the platforms of virtual reality as a working tool. Another picture that I find has a strong impact is The wait is nearly over where the cold background tones bring out the warm tones of the avatar better portrayed in an almost dreamlike.